Essential fatty acid deficiency in patients with lesions of the gastrointestinal tract.

The relative amounts of unsaturated fatty acids in the serum lipids of 14 patients who have undergone small bowel resection have been investigated. These results are compared with those from control subjects and also from patients suffering from cancer of the oesophagus.Both groups of patients showed patterns of unsaturated fatty acids suggesting essential fatty acid deficiency. In the resection patients there was no correlation between the extent of intestinal removal and the extent of the change in the unsaturated fatty acid pattern.